Buffing and polishing wheel



Sept. 11, 1945.

B. c. CASE BUFFING AND POLISHING WHEEL Filed Aug. 13, 1942 5 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR CASE.

ATT RNEYS.

Sept. 11, 1945. B Q E 2,384,599

BUFFING AND POLISHING WHEEL Filed Aug. 13, 1942 '3 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 6.

INV E NTOR. flaw/map C1435.

Sept. 11, 1945. B. c. CASE BUFFING AND POLISHING WHEEL Filed Aug. 13, 1942 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 FIG. I

0 Q 0 3 0 0 :4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 I 0 0 0"? 0 0 0 0 0u% 0 0 0 Patented Sept. 11, 1945 EATEE 2,384,599 I BUFFING AND romsnmd WHEEL Application August 13, 1942, Serial No. 454,653

4 Claims.

This invention relates to the construction of undulating bumng and polishing wheels, and has for an important object to provide such equipment in forms which permit quick and accurate assembly for bufilng and polishing operations.

In a well-known form of flexible bufling and polishing wheels, muslin or other cloth discs, made up into sections of a number of plies, are assembled on the spindle to produce a buffing or polishing wheel of deslredwidth depending upon the number of sections. Other fibrous materials of varying degrees of hardness and flexibility are also used in forming such sections, These wheels of assembled sections may have bufling or polishing compositions applied to their surfaces by friction during the use of the wheel, or the circumference of the wheel may be set up with melted, glue and abrasive powder, in a manner well known to those skilled in the art, to form a polishing wheel of rigid or semi-rigid surface. Ordinarily the wheel sections are clamped between inner and outer flanges which flt over the shouldered spindle and are drawn up against the sections by means of a nut on the threaded outer end of the spindle. In a bufling or polishing wheel thus assembled, the sections lie in planes perpendicular to the spindle axis, and the bufflng and polishing operation is performed upon the work in the direction of the wheel circumference. It has been proposed to modify this construction and operation by employing waved flanges or end plates to deflect the wheel sections transversely of themselves into undulating form,

with the waves progressing circumferentially around the wheel. The polishing operation then occurs not only in the direction of the wheel circumference but axially, i. e. transversely of the wheel. For convenience, the operation in the direction circumferentially of the wheel will be termed "circumferential bufling or polishing,

and the operation transversely of the wheel will be termed cross bufflng or polishing.

The combination of circumferential and cross bufllng or polishing will accomplish a given buffln or polishing result in much less time and with fewer operations than the ordinary circumferential buffing. The cross buffing is largely, if not entirely, an edge effect due to the rotating undulations of the buff circumference, and I find its effectiveness is increased by employing spacers between the successive bull sections to present the sections to the work in the form of a number of exposed, parallel undulating edges which travel back and forth in an axial direction as the wheel rotates.

of the section is decreased at the deflected portlons. For this reason, a true circular disk when so deflected does not produce a wheel of strictly cylindrical contour at the circumference, but its ,surface will lie at greater or lesser distances from the wheel axis corresponding with location and amplitude of the waves or undulations into which it has been deflected. Such a wheel should be' dressed down to a true cylindrical circumference, after being assembled on the spindle. on the other hand, the sections, in the process of manufacture, may be cut in generally circular outline or contour but with convex radial protrusions located and dimensioned with due regard to the wave form which is to be conferred upon the sections when assembled into the undulatory form. Thus, by proper registration and assembly of the sections between their deflecting end plates, the periphery of the wheel can be made to lie within a true or substantially true cylindrical curve. In order that this may be accomplished, the sections to be employed in a given wheel design and size must be given a peripheral form corresponding with the number of complete waves to be set up and their amplitude, the radius of the section being greatest at the crests and troughs of the waves and smallest where the material is to lie in the median plane when assembled. The number and amplitude of the waves in the assembled wheel will be determined by the contour of the deflecting end plates employed in forming the wheel on the spindle.

sections with the crests and troughs, and the 1 shorter radii with the points where the waves cross the median planes.

Examples of constructions according to my invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which: a

Figure 1 is an edge elevation, and Figure 2 an end elevation of a bufllng or polishing wheel employing one form, of mechanically coacting aligning members in accordance with my invention.

.Figure 3 is a central cross section of the wheel in the axial plane.

Figure 4 is an edge view of a pair of inner and outer deflecting end plates employed.

Figures 5 and 6 are respectively inner and outer face views of the end plates, and

Figure '7 is a face view of one of the sections, with the non-circular periphery exaggerated for the sake of cleamess.

Figure 8 is an axial section and Figure 9 a section on the line 9-9 of Figure 8, showing another form of mechanically coacting aligning members.

Figure 10 is a farce view of a buff or polishing wheel section and a deflecting end plate provided with indicating marks to facilitate registration.

Figure 11 is a fragmentary axial section of a wheel assembled with bolts passing through perforations in the end plates, sections and spacers to effect and maintain registration.

Referring in detail to said drawings, and particularly Figures 1, 2 and 3 thereof, the shouldered rotating spindle is indicated at 10, the inner flange at H and the outer flange at I2. l3 represents the nut threaded on the outer end of the spindle ID for locking the wheel members in assembled position. The deflecting end plates or wave formers l4 and I5, having plane or flat centers perforated to fit over the wheel spindle, lie flat against the inner faces of the inner and outer wheel flanges II and I2. These end plates confine between them the buffing or polishing wheel sections l6 and the spacers H, which are of less diameter than the sections and alternate therewith. In the example selected for illustration, it is assumed that three complete waves are to be formed, and for this reason the deflection plates H and I5, as shown in Figure 4, undue late through the median plane l8 to the wave crests l9 and wave troughs 20 to form three crests and three troughs in 360, Orin other words six half waves. A pin 2|, or a plurality of pins in balanced relation, projecting inwardly from the face of one or each deflecting disk, may be employed to mechanically coact with one or a plurality of perforations 22 formed in the sections 16, as illustrated in Figure 7, in aligning the sections with each other and with the wave formers. As seen in Figure 7, the sections [6 are generally circular in outline but have convexly-contoured radial protusions disposed one at each end of certain diameters uniformly spaced around the circumference. The two radii of the same diameter are equal in length, but those embraced by each protusion, for example l6, are longer than those between adjacent protrusions, for example IS. The pins 2| are always located in the same relation to the wave troughs and crests of the deflecting end plates as the perforations 22 bear to .the longest radii ii of the sections I6.- Two perforations and two pins may be located on opposite radii of a common diameter so as to coincide with parts of waves which are either in phase with each other or 180 out of phase and hence of equal radius. It is therefore immaterial, in the original assembly of the sections on the pins, which of the two pins engages a, particular one of the two perforations. There may, on the other hand, be three pins and three perforations when the deflecting plate is designed to 'form three complete waves of 120 each. In such :case, the pins and perforations important where the wheel is to be disassembled and later reassembled. The orienting means render it unnecessary to again dress down the surface with the additional waste of material incidental thereto.

The same considerations apply in the case of polishing wheels made up of a plurality of spaced ing surface. In this particular case, however, the

would advantageously be spaced 120 apart, as in waves once formed are more or less fixed by the glue and abrasive composition so that they have to be reassembled with the waves properly in phase. This presents no particular problem because the waves are visible, and proper alignment is apparent on inspection.

Figures 8 and 9 represent an embodiment of the invention in which registering pins 23 are mounted in a separate plate or disk 24 perforated to pass freely over the spindle ill. The wave formers or end plates 25 are provided with perforations 28 to register with the pins 23 so that the latter may be passed first through the outer wave former, then the correspondingly perforated buif sections I8 and spacers ll-alternating therewith, and then the inner wave former. With the outer wheel flange and nut removed from the spindle, these assembled parts may be slipped over the spindle. The outer wheel flange and nut may then be applied to tighten the wheel on the spindle, after which the registering member may be withdrawn.

Referring to Figure 11, it will be seen that the perforated deflector plates likewise permit the assembly of the sections, spacers and deflector plates into a unit by means of bolts 23'- passing through the aligned perforations and fltted with nuts to apply regulated and distributed pressure in forming the waves. The bolts may remain in place or be withdrawn after the wheel has been mounted on the spindle.

Varying degrees of compression may be applied by the securing nut, and thus the amplitude of the waves is subject to a'certain amount of regulation or control. The operator may, for example, increase the compression until he finds. the circumference of the wheel is running in a true cylinder, or, if he prefers, he may adjust the compression so as to leave a desired and controlled amount'of radial undulation in the running surface. Some types of work, especially in cutting-down operations, are accelerated by such undulations, which need not be of sufllcient Since the aligning device is withdrawn before .the wheel is rotated for use, it does not complicate the question of balance. In a sense, the aligning members shown in Figures 3 and 4 are partly interchangeable with those shown in Figures 8 and 9, inasmuch as one of the waveforming end plates i4-I5, bearing the aligning pin or pins, may be used in conjunction with one of the perforated wave formers 25, with-the perforated sections and spacers between them. In

such a rearrangement of the parts, the pin or pins of the outer wave former could be made long enough to pass through the perforations of the other and remain a running part of the wheel assembly.

In Figure 10, the registration of the sections- 30 with the wave formers 3| is effected visually by observation of the indicating mark or symbol 32 formed on each section 30, with relation to the either singly or with more than one between each pair of sections. They are preferably of such a diameter and of such material as to partake of the wave formation under the influence of the undulating deflectors.

The invention has been illustrated by embodiments in which the deflecting end plates are formed to create a plurality of complete waves. While this construction is preferred, the functions of the invention are in large measure also applicable to embodiments in which only half waves uniformly distributed on thesame side of the median or basal planes of the end plates are employed. In such cases, the radial protrusions in the sections are, of course, only required for those portions of the section which depart from the basal plane, the rest of the section following the circular periphery. Hence, the two radii of each diameter in these embodiments need not always be equal.

I claim:

l. A plurality of sections preformed for registered assembly in forming waved rotary bufling and polishing wheels, each section being in the form'of a flat centrally-perforated peripherallycontinuous flexible disk of generally circular outline with convexly-contoured radial protrusions uniformly spaced around the circumference, and having means for registering it circumferentially with respect to adjacent sections.

2. A plurality of sections preformed for registered assembly in forming waved rotary bumng and polishing wheels, each section being in the form of a flat generally circular, centrally-pen forated peripherally-continuous flexible disk departing from true circular outline by an even number of convexlyacontoured radial protrusions disposed one at each end of certain diameters uniformly spaced around the circumference, the two radii of any diameter of a section always being equal in magnitude and each of the sections bearing at a point removed from the center and in the same positional relation to its radial protrusions an alignment element to facilitate assembly of a group of sections with their radial protrusions in registry.

3. A plurality of flexible sections preformed for registered assembly in forming waved rotary bufllng and polishing wheels, each section having the general form of a centrally-perforated flat 'disk departing from true circular outline by an even number of convexly-contoured radial protrusions disposed one at each end of certain diameters uniformly spaced around the circumference, the two radii of any diameter of a section being always equal to each other, and each of the sections hearing at a. point removed from the center on a radius at constant position with respect to the radial protrusions a perforation to facilitate assembly of a group of sectionswith their radial protrusions in registry.

4. A waved rotary buffing or polishing wheel comprising in combination a'plurality oi flexible sections each having the general form of a centrally-perforated normally flat peripherally-continuous disk departing from true circular outline by radial protrusions where waves are to occur, and a pair of deflecting end plates for confining between them a group of sections, said sections having perforations disposed in constant p0sitional relation to the radial protrusions and at least one of said deflecting end plates having a projection for entering the said perforations to ensure by mechanical coaction therewith the circumferential registration of the sections with each other and with the deflecting end plates.

BERNARD C. CASE. 

